A meta-analysis of trials comparing Cypher and Taxus stents in patients with obstructive coronary artery disease

Aims Drug-eluting stents have been shown to be superior to bare metal stents in reducing restenosis rates. Recently head-to-head trials comparing sirolimus-eluting stents and paclitaxel-eluting stents have been reported. An early combined analysis of these comparative trials is needed. The present meta-analysis was carried out to compare the effects of sirolimus-eluting stents with paclitaxel-eluting stents on the restenosis rate, major adverse cardiac events and late loss of arterial lumen diameter in patients with obstructive coronary artery disease. Methods Electronic (Medline, Cochrane and Embase) and manual search (Index Medicus and cross references of retrieved articles) were carried out for all the relevant articles up till March 2005. Only randomized trials with adequate data for calculation of odds ratio for restenosis rates and major adverse cardiac events using the method of DerSimonian & Laird and standardized mean difference for late loss of arterial lumen diameter were included. Results Four studies were found to be eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Restenosis rate and late loss of arterial lumen diameter were significantly reduced by sirolimus-eluting stents as compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents (OR 0.598, 95% CI 0.400, 0.893, pooled mean difference -0.414, 95% CI -0.492, 0.336, respectively). The incidence of major adverse cardiac events was less with sirolimus-eluting stents as compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents (OR 0.727, 95% CI 0.518-1.018) but the results were not statistically significant. Conclusions Sirolimus-eluting stents are superior to paclitaxel-eluting stents in decreasing restenosis rate and late loss of arterial lumen diameter. However, no statistically significant difference in major adverse cardiac events was noted between the two stents.